I think it is nice for all children to have their own “place” for playing, eating, or creating in the kitchen. If you are like me, you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking, pre-cooking, sorting mail, and cleaning. As a child, my brother and I had our own “place” in the kitchen via our own table and chairs. I wanted the same for my son.

At 16 months of age, we got our son his own kitchen table. They are easy to find in just about any store that sells products for children. You can see that ours is just a simple white table. My son and his playmates love to eat, color, and play at this table.

In this picture, to the below right, you can see, I put the table against the window thinking my son would enjoy the view from there. However, around 19 months of age, he decided different. One day he just started moving his table and chairs around the kitchen. He would move then sit, move then sit.

I finally realized that he had decided to find a better spot in the kitchen for his table and chairs. This independence and thought process was quite a surprise, funny, and entertaining to watch. He finally chose a spot at the end of the bar island, above left, and to this day he has kept it there.

My early age toddler loves to build up legos, stack blocks, nesting cups, anything stackable. He also loves to complete puzzles and shape sorters. However, when his creations start to tumble, fall apart or become too difficult, he can get very frustrated. He will take my hands and push me to finish his tasks. First I acknowledge his feeling of frustration and that feeling is ok. I have even taught him the word “frustrated”, using sesame street “emotion” flashcards, so he can tell me if he is frustrated. Then I try to talk him through his task, cheerleading him to complete what he started or another way to complete the task. If your child can complete their tasks with your encouragement then they have built onto their determination, patience and self-confidence in being able to finish their own task.

To follow-up with our previous post; Yes, we both co-slept, but we used co-sleeping products to expand our adult bed until our children outgrew them. We did continue with the family bed and support co-sleeping. Unfortunately, so many assume and judge when they hear of a family co-sleeping. Many don’t realize that there are safe ways to co-sleep which has been linked to reducing SIDS. This post is to enlighten the ways in which to safely co-sleep and help show support to those families still wanting to co-sleep.

How to make co-sleeping safer

1. Do not use heavy bedding: blankets, duvets, pillows
2. Do not let your baby sleep near crevices
3. Do not leave your baby unattended alone on an adult bed
4. Parents should not lie next to a child if they are intoxicated with drugs, alcohol, extreme parental fatigue, or struggling with obesity.
5. Do not smoke
6. Do not let a newborn sleep next to a sibling or pet
7. Do not co-sleep on sofas or recliners
8. Be aware of just how tired you are…extreme exhaustion=extreme caution
9. Both parents should be committed to co-sleeping in order to truly be safe
10. Safest place is usually between a breastfeeding mother and wall or bedrail
11. Consider lowering your bed or putting the mattress on the floor
12. Use connecting co-sleepers to the adult bed (these can be handmade or bought)
13. Think twice before sleeping with more than one child
14. We love these top products for co-sleeping 

Additional thoughts:

For as many claims, studies, research, and doctors backing co-sleeping to prevent SIDS there are the same against co-sleeping causing SIDS.

For those parents who do want to co-sleep, they should not be “scared”, manipulated, judged and ashamed from doing so. However, they should educate themselves on how to safely co-sleep if their environment allows it.

The word SIDS used to be called “crib death” until the Crib industry fought to have that changed. Once the name was changed; interesting how many ads and anti-co sleeping propaganda started coming out profiting the crib industry.

In the end, co-sleeping should not be taken lightly. It can be as dangerous as letting your child sleep in the crib with bumper pads, blankets, or stuffed animals. Every parent should think twice before co-sleeping, taking necessary precautions.

Recently Milwaukee ran a provocative ad against co-sleeping. The ad was beyond sickening to us, and we support the other mothers outraged by this ad. Our families are truly saddened by such judgmental, assuming, close-mindnesses as well as false advertising. Both of us wisemommies co-slept with our children in a family bed. Thankfully, our German husbands were open and educated better on this matter. Our experiences were fantastic and more information on how we developed this will come in further posts. A short conclusion from both wisemommies follows below:

Click here to see the ad

Wisemommies #1: After experiencing that our son is a light sleeper, we consulted baby books for co-sleeping, but that was a very bad mistake! All of those books preached, 'Don´t take your baby into your bed'. Going forward, I listened to my motherly instinct as well as the advice of our Canadian doctor to co-sleep. From that night on, we all slept better and caught up on those sleepless nights. We slept so happily together and still do when our son comes over at night. I could tell that hearing my breathing actually stimulated his breathing impulse, he breathed with me! Sleeping with our son opened our hearts and minds to the fact that there are many nighttime parenting styles. Parents need to be sensible and use whatever arrangement gets all family members the best night sleep. While it's nice to have the bed back to ourselves, we remember when our family bed was complete, and still get to experience that, now and then, when our son decides to come to our bed at night. Oh, and the whole transition from crib to bed, didn’t/don’t have that with co-sleeping!!

My side note: New studies reveal that babies breathe better when sleeping next to mom than when sleeping alone. Babies breathing and their heart rate are more regular during shared sleep. Most families throughout the world sleep with their infants. Why is this taboo in the American culture/society?

Wisemommies #2: My German sister/brother-in-law co-slept and my husband comes from a co-sleeping family. I always thought she was crazy, and we would not be the family that would co-sleep. However, I was also determined to succeed in breastfeeding. My sister-in-law had my precious nephew shortly before me, and I listened to her wonderful and funny stories of co-sleeping. I often wondered if I would have those same experiences if I didn’t co-sleep. Good that we stay open-minded As, I've said before, I’m a big believer in adopting different cultural practices

My son was born over 9pounds and came out an eating machine. He wanted 9-10 feedings a day and he took 45minutes to 2 hours for each feeding. No he didn’t nap while feeding, he is just a slow eater…still is! We ended up co-sleeping just so I could get sleep in while still being able to feed and sleep. It worked, and even after he weaned from night feedings, he wanted to sleep in the family bed. We really ended up enjoying this experience and everyday at 6am, our son still wakes up and wants in the family bed for the last 1-2 hours of sleep and cuddling. Look how well he sleeps in our bed...just like daddy 

We also love the response from the blog, babble